Cinema Science

Roger Ebert has added Spike Jonze's Adaptation to his list of Great Movies. I re-watched this recently and had forgot how good it really is. Always being a huge fan of the film, I was surprised to be reminded of all the sadness that is plaguing Charlie's solitary life as a writer, as well as many of the other characters in the film. Not that this is a downbeat film by any means, its a hilarious comedy, mixed with a thriller (in the third act, at least), mixed with about five or six other things I don't even know how to describe. My favorite passage from the review doesn't have much to do with the film, instead it focuses on how great Nicolas Cage can be. I know he can be really bad, horrible even, but when he is on he is fantastic.

There are often lists of the great living male movie stars: De Niro, Nicholson and Pacino, usually. How often do you see the name of Nicolas Cage? He should always be up there. He's daring and fearless in his choice of roles, and unafraid to crawl out on a limb, saw it off and remain suspended in air. No one else can project inner trembling so effectively. Recall the opening scenes in "Leaving Las Vegas." See him in Scorsese's "Bringing Out the Dead." Think of the title character in "The Weather Man." Watch him melting down in "Adaptation." And then remember that he can also do a parachuting Elvis impersonator ("Honeymoon in Vegas"), a wild rock 'n' roller ("Wild at Heart"), a lovesick one-handed baker ("Moonstruck"), a straight-arrow Secret Service agent ("Guarding Tess") and on and on.

He always seems so earnest. However improbable his character, he never winks at the audience. He is committed to the character with every atom and plays him as if he were him. His success in making Charlie Kaufman a neurotic mess and Donald Kaufman a carefree success story, in the same movie, comes largely from this gift. There are slight cosmetic differences between the two: Charlie usually needs a shave, Donald has a little more hair. But the real reason we can tell the twins apart, even when they're in the same trick shot, comes from within: Cage can tell them apart. He is always Charlie when he plays Charlie, always Donald when he plays Donald. Look and see.

I know none of this is really that relevant but I have been on a Roger Ebert wave lately. I am currently reading his book on Scorsese ("Scorsese by Ebert," was there ever a simpler title?) and just picked up his earlier book Alone in the Dark.